Something's Not Right
by darkshadowgem
Summary: It's been a couple days since anyone seen Branch, and almost all trolls don't mind not seeing him since its a nice break from him ruining any of their parties. But each day Princess Poppy's worry for the grey troll's safety increases, realizing something's not right, she sets off to find him. Will she be able to find him in time? Read to find out!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It's been a couple days since Poppy's seen Branch. Each day she keeps getting more and more worried. Worried that something bad happened to the grumpy survivalist troll.

She should have realized something was wrong that first day.

 _Flashback- Poppy's pov_

 ** _Beep beep bee-_**

 _I shot up, smiling widely as I turn off my alarm. Quickly I jumped off my bed and got dressed, looking in the mirror._

 _"Today is going to be a great day! I just know it!" I smiled to myself._

 _Glancing over to the extra special invitation I made for Branch, it was inviting him to the party happening later today, since he's been acting different theses past few day. Branch has been more grumpy and closed off, I mean more than usual. So in an effort to cheer him up I made this extra special invitation. Hint hint, it has a little extra something to hopefully cheer him up, that I know he'll like! Hopefully._

'He's just going to say no like always.' _A little voice in the back of my mind whispered._

 _Shaking my head and smiling wide I grabbed the invitation and put it gently in my hair, as not to damage it, and skipped to the dining room to where my dad was._

 _"Hi dad!" I skipped over to him and gave him a great big hug._

 _Turning around to me smiling wide "Poppy!" he exclaimed returning my hug, "How are you this wonderful morning, my sweet princess?"_

 _"I feel great!" skipping over I grabbed a berry shoving it in my mouth. Facing dad again "How are you?" I asked as small bits of the berry spilled from my mouth._

 _Letting out a loud hardy laugh he handed me a napkin and responded, "I'm feeling wonderful my dear," as I wiped my face he grabbed my basket of invitations and gave it to me taking the napkin. "Have a fun party Poppy and make sure you're done by midnight."_

 _Nodding my head I began to take off, but quickly ran back to give my dad a hug._

 _"I love you dad."_

 _"I love you too Poppy."_

 _Running outside my pod I was immediately greeted with a "Good morning Princess Poppy!"_

 _"Good morning to all of you!" I greeted back. Grabbing my cowbell out of my hair I started tapping it._

 _"A five-six-seven-eight!"_

 _(_ **Time skip over big musical number** _)_

 _"YEAH!" Everyone shouted after we sang the final note. We all were breathing heavily still holding our poses from the song._

 _'That should lure Branch out' I thought to myself._

 _As I was regaining my breath I glanced around trying to spot the grumpy troll. But I couldn't find him anywhere! 'Where is he? Isn't he normally warning us about the bergens at this point? Where could he have gone? Where is Branch!?' my mind was racing trying to figure out where the survivalist is._

 _A voice called out from behind me "Uh Poppy?". Breaking me from my train of thought glancing behind me I notice all the trolls still in the final pose and struggling to stay up._

 _"Do you think we can get down now?" Biggie asked as he held up six other trolls on his shoulders plus Mr. Dinkles in his arms. "I'm getting a bit tired holding up all these trolls."_

 _"Yeah," Cooper piped up, I was standing on his head and he started to wobble a bit, "You're my best friend Poppy, but my neck is starting to hurt from holding you up."_

 _"OH! I'm sorry!"_

 _Quickly I scrambled down and off Cooper's neck, spinning around to face the rest of the trolls, with a huge smile on my face I called out, "That was great everyone! You all did fantastic, you can go off to do whatever you want! I'll see you all later at the party!"_

 _They all cheered as they dispersed to do do their own things. My friends walked over to me, concerned looks on their faces._

 _"What's wrong Poppy?" Guy diamond asked in his auto tune voice. "You're not acting like yourself."_

 _Smidge gasped covering her mouth with her hands, "You're not sick are you?!" The others gasped as well and all started to gather around me voices overlapping one another._

 _I waved my hand in a dismissing motion, "No, no nothing like that," I sighed, cocking my head behind me to peer in the direction of where Branch's bunker is. "It's just that, normally Branch would be here giving his whole 'If you guys keep singing and dancing like that you'll attract a bergen' routine." Wrapping one arm around me, I began tapping my fingers against my arm._

 _Dj Suki rolled her eyes crossing her arms, "Why do you even want to hear it? He does it every day, honestly it's a nice break_ not _to hear it."_

 _Creek hummed in agreement, placing a hand on my shoulder, "Poppy enjoy the nice break from his overbearing negativity, it's starting to affect your aura." he gave me a small smile as he looked into my eyes._

 _Returning a small smile back, I shrugged his hand off gently, turning to completely face my friends. "It's not that I enjoy his routine either, it's just that," reaching into my hair, I delicately grabbed the invitation from my hair to show them. "He's just been so grumpy and closed off that-"_

 _Cooper cut me off, "But he's always grumpy and closed off. Such a party pooper!" huffing his lip pouting out. He looked back at me, and I gave him a deadpanned look for cutting me off._

 _"Sorry." he mumbled._

 _"It's okay Cooper. As I was saying he's been more closed off and grumpy than usual, so I wanted to give him this special invitation to hopefully cheer him up." caressing the top of the invitation. Putting the invitation delicately back in my hair, looking back up at my silent friends._

 _The twins were the first break the silence "Poppy you do know-" "-that he's just going to-" "destroy the invitation like always."_

 _Hanging my head a little low I started to kick at the ground, "I guess you're both right."_

 _"Don't be sad Poppy," Biggie said, then gave me a off-the clock hug. I smiled and hugged him back, "Thanks Biggie."_

 _He chuckled "You're most welcome Poppy."_

 _"Besides Poppy-" Satin piped up as she and Chenille walked over to me. "Every time around this year Branch disappears for a day-"_

 _"We're sure you'll probably see him tomorrow, back to his normal amount of grumpiness." Chenille finished up._

 _I thought about it for a moment, "Hmmm, you're right! I'm sure he's just off gathering material for his bunker like always," smiling wide as my friends cheered because I was acting myself again. 'I'm sure he's just fine, heck he might just crash the party later,' I thought to myself._

 ** _Ping ping_**

 _Looking down at my watch, a huge grin that reached from ear to ear broke out._

 _"HUG TIME!" We all yelled before getting into one big hug pile, as we were hugging I took a quick glance past Creeks head, toward the location of Branch's bunker. I couldn't help but feel my heart ache a small bit at the thought of something bad happening to Branch. After we all broke apart I reached out and grabbed Suki and Guy Diamond's hand and dragged them behind as the others followed close behind._

 ** _"Lets go set up a great party!"_**

 _Flashback over_

But Branch never showed up at the party, and no one saw him the next day either and Poppy got so worried, that she decided to stop by his bunker later that day before she was going to go home. To see why the survivalist has been locked up in his bunker for a little over two days.

 _Flashback-Poppy's pov_

 ** _Bang Bang Bang_**

 _"Branch! Branch! Branch! Open up!" I yelled out banging on the bolder above his bunker, stepping back I crossed my arms, looking down at his welcome mat that spelled 'GO AWAY'._

 _I waited a couple more minutes before I went back to the bolder, and pulled the secret lever that opened up the mat. Jumping down into the hole I glanced around and noticed… Traps. Traps everywhere, even more than last time._

 _'Typical Branch' I thought to myself, As I was looking around at the many traps I noticed a lever that stood out, so I did what any troll would do._

 _I pulled the lever._

 _The ground under me began to shake as it started to move down, as I moved down deeper into the bunker my mouth hung open as I took in all the materials the survivalist apparently had stored down here._

 _"Whoa," I marveled at how big his bunker actually was, I had never been down here before the furthest Branch ever allowed me was the trap room above, and that was only one time! I walked over to a nearby cabinet and preceded to open it. Inside was a bunch of beakers and test tubes and a bunch of other things I don't really know too much about. After closing the cabinet I started looking around calling out for the grumpy troll._

 _"Branch!" I called out, bounding into his kitchen, I dug through his cabinets and saw berries, roots and a variant amounts of other foods. "I'm going through your pantry~" I sang out, hopefully drawing him out from wherever he was hiding._

 _After a few more minutes of not hearing a reply, I began to wander around a bit more. Ending up in, last but not least, Branch's room, pushing the door open and flipping the lights on I felt my breath hitched in my throat as I took in his room. Surprisingly it wasn't like the rest of the bunker, unlike the rest of the bunker which gave a cold closed off feeling, his room gave off more of a warm comforting feeling. Unlike the rest of Branch's bunker which consisted mainly of gray stone walls, the bedroom looked like it had been built inside a tree root and the floor was moss making it soft to walk on. The bed was close the bathroom, across from his bed was his closet, I peeked inside and giggled at the multitude of the amount of the same type of clothing. Glancing to my left I noticed a huge bookcase._

 _Cocking my head to the side, "Branch, the most grumpiest troll in like the entire history of trolls likes to read?!" pondering this information. "I mean I knew he liked to read up on things, mostly anything and everything about bergens but these," I questioned out-loud, grabbing one of the many books on the shelves, a book called 'How to sew: for dummies.' "I'd never expect Branch to read these types of books."_

 _Placing the book back, out of the corner of my eye I notice something shimmer, I skipped over to a box and threw the lid open. I snorted at what I saw inside the box; more traps. As well as some other contraptions, I let out a small smile._

 _'That's my Branchie,' I thought to myself, standing up it dawned upon me what I just thought, 'MY BRANCHIE!? Ohhhhh no-no-no-no-no I do **not** like Branch like that! I like Creek like that!' I mentally screamed._

'Don't deny it, _' the little voice in my mind commented, '_ You love Branch. You love-love-looove Branch. _"_

 _Before I could begin to deny the statement a little **ping** sounded throughout the room. I looked down at my bracelet, feeling my heart soar I whipped around looking for the grey troll when it slowly dawned upon me that, oh yeah, he isn't here. So I did the next best thing and gave myself a hug, before letting out a small yawn. Peeking at the clock on his nightstand I noticed two things, one: it was midnight, and two: Branch wears **reading glasses!**_

 _I couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the thought of Branch wearing reading glasses. But as my laughter died down I began to remember why I came here._

 _"Branch, where are you?" I called out into the empty bunker, becoming even more on edge as to where he could have gone to. Sighing I peered over at the bed, 'I don't think it'd be safe for me to head home at this time. Especially since Branch's bunker is a bit far from the village, it's probably safer for me to stay here.' I thought to myself. Turning the lights off I walked over to the bed and grabbed the covers, I lifted them up._

 _'I hope Branch doesn't mind that sleep in his bed,' climbing into the bed and placing the covers over me, 'since I didn't see any spare bedrooms.'_

 _Nuzzling my face into his pillow, I couldn't help but inhale the lingering scent. It smelled like the earth and sweat and just **Branch** , it made me feel so safe and secure that it just lured me into sleep._

~In the morning~

 ** _BEEP BEEP BEEP_**

 _"Ughhhhh" I groaned, pulling the pillow I was snuggling with closer, trying to block out the annoying alarm. Shoving my face further into the pillow, I blindly tried to turn the alarm off but to no avail, letting out a huff I glared up at the alarm. Which read '5:05', after screaming into the pillow, I groggily turn off the alarm, rubbing my eyes as I sat up still holding the pillow close to me. Taking in my surroundings it slowly dawn upon me as to where I am, in Branch's bunker, in his bedroom, in **his bed** , **snuggling with his pillow!**_

 _Shoving the pillow behind me I slid out of the bed walking into the living room, "Branch!" I called out into the bunker in hope that he came back during the night. But I felt my plus quicken when no response was heard, placing my hand over my racing heart, as to calm it down. My mind began to race, and I became worried stiff as I came to a conclusion; Branch must have gotten hurt getting material!_

 _Lucky for me that Branch is a troll of routine, he likes to the same route to get his materials and I know where that route is! Hopefully he isn't too hurt, but if I want to get to Branch before he possibly gets worse, I have to go now!_

 ** _"Don't worry Branch! I'm coming to save you!"_**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I own nothing but the plot**.

Chapter 2

 _"Show the world you got that fire! (fire!),"_

Poppy sang while following the footprints on the worn down trail, in the early morning as she searched for Branch. Luck on finding the gray troll was on her side, as the sun was already rising giving her enough light to see the tracks, it hadn't rained in the past few days so the footprints he had made were still visible. Plus none of the other trolls either don't know or don't like to take this path. Meaning that only Branch's footprints and animals/other creatures were the only other footprints on the path.

Even while singing she stayed on high alert, the princess kept her eyes and ears peeled for any sign of the gray troll. _"Feel the rhythm getting louder!,_ " She bounded down the path so fast, her worry for Branch fueling her adrenaline. Going so fast that she almost missed it when a pair of troll sized footprints deviated off the normal worn down path.

" _Show the room what yo-_ "

Skidding to a stop she turned back around and she stared at the footprints, heading in a direction she'd never seen him go before.

"Why did he go this way? I never saw him go this way before," the pink troll questioned. Poppy looked down the path he had seemingly went down, "Maybe he was being chased? I'm coming Branch!" she bellowed. Sprinting down the path for a few minutes, dodging many dangerous creatures, " _When I see you again!_ "

When Branch's footprints ended Poppy looked up, and gasped in astonishment. Laid before her was what looked like a beautiful flower field, taking in the tall grass and multitude of flowers that lined the outline of the field. Poppy was like an ant compared to the field! She couldn't even see above the flower that was right in front of her. How was she supposed to find the survivalist in this field?

'Why would Branch even be here?' The princess wondered to herself.

"This is nothing like the Branch I know," she questioned out loud. Using her hair as like some kind of fuzzy grappling hook, she wrapped her hair on a nearby tree branch,one that was high above the field, then pulled herself onto the branch. "Although recent discoveries would prove that I _don't_ know Branch that well." the happy princess told herself with a slight smirk. Giggling when she pictured in her mind the grumpy troll wearing his reading glasses, while reading a _romantic poems_ book; a book that she _may or may not_ have spotted on his book case.

Rotating around to face the field, Poppy's jaw dropped in awe and amazement at the sight of the flower field. She knew it would look beautiful, but this….. This was breath taking.

The field was bigger than she ever imagined! Filled with thousands of different types of flowers, some types she's never seen before. Out of the entire field one small group of flower caught her attention, close to the impromptu path that Poppy and Branch took, was a small patch of poppies, most of them were red, but a couple of them toward the middle where pink. Poppies were a rare flower to grow in the area they lived in, so to see a group of them growing naturally was a rare sight to see!

Something else caught the pink princess's eye. Thanks to the view from the tree branch, she noticed that one of poppies was bent at a weird angle and a couple of the petals were torn; like something had hit it then tried to grab onto it for dear life.

"Branch!" Poppy gasped as she realized that it must have been him, who made those marks.

Jumping from the tree toward the ground close to where the poppies are, she tried to use her hair to help her land safely, but her mind was so swirled from thoughts of what might have happened to Branch, that she wasn't able to fully dodge a rock; resulting in her hurting her left arm.

Poppy hissed as she looked down at her arm, noticing the large cut and a newly forming bruise, " _I can't dwell on this now, I need to help Branch. After all no troll left behind!_ " she thought to herself, before taking off toward the poppies.

Running as fast as she could, she quickly made it to the poppy patch. Breathing heavily, her eyes darted around trying to find either the broken poppy or the gray troll. Spotting the broken poppy, Poppy was about to take off toward it, when a pained grunt caught her attention. Jerking her head toward the direction of the grunt, the princess broke out into a small grin, "Branch," she whispered.

Taking off in the direction she heard the grunt come from, Poppy could feel her grin get even wider with each step as she can hear Branch's voice get even louder. Straight ahead was a huge hole, halting to a stop at the edge of the hole, the princess peer inside, most of the was hole visible except for one section which was dark due a flower blocking the sun. Sitting in the darkness Poppy could just barely make out a small body. His back was facing toward her, as he seemed to be looking through something on his right.

But that doesn't matter to the princess, she had found the troll she had been looking for! Poppy's heart began to soar and she couldn't help but let out a happy gasp.

Branch, had been talking to himself while looking through his backpack for anything that could help him in his current situation, heard the gasp and whipped his head to face the sound. Blue eyes peering out from the dark, the survivalist noticed a very familiar pink troll. His jaw dropping in shock.

 _"Poppy!?"_

"Branch! I'm so glad I found you!"

"What are you doing here!?" Branch called out to her. She was bouncing around despite the pain in her arm, she was just so happy to find him! "And what happened to your arm?!"

"I came out to find you, Branch! Duhhh," she yelled back, ignoring his second question. Squinting her eyes Poppy could notice something was wrong with the gray troll, she glanced up at the flower that was covering Branch in darkness.

 _'If I move that flower, then I can properly see Branch! And then I could see what's wrong with him and help him!'_ the pink troll thought to herself before smiling. The grey troll, on the other hand, furrowed his eyebrows; he knew that look on the princess face and he _did not_ like that look.

His eyebrows shot up as he realized what she was going to do.

"Poppy, _NO!"_

Branch call out tried trying to stop her, but Poppy had already turned away from him and used her hair to move the flower, bringing the survivalist into the light. Pleased with herself she spun back around to face him, but the moment she saw him, her jaw dropped in shock and horror.

 _"Branch….._ " Poppy shakily whispered.

The troll mentioned looked like a mess, his gray skin was paler than normal and he had dark circles under his eyes. His clothes were torn and ripped, either from his own doing or from whatever he was fighting; or most likely by both. Cuts and bruises littered his entire body, some of what looked like the deeper cuts had makeshift bandages to stop them from bleeding, made from his own clothes. The smaller cuts had bits of dried blood around them. What was worst of all was his right leg, which was badly twisted.

"Branch," Stuttering she ask "W-w-what happened?" worry was laced in her voice. Tears were forming in her eyes the longer she looked.

"Poppy," he began to say but before he could tell her what happened, a sound caught both their attentions.

 _ **Caw Caw**_

Branch froze in horror, while Poppy tilted her head up toward the sky, trying to find out what made that sound and where it was coming from.

Before the princess could comprehend what was happening, the survivalist had wrapped his hair around her, and was now pulling her toward him. Grunting in slight pain as he took on her weight, pulling her onto the uninjured side of his lap; having her wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. As he wrapped his arms around Poppy's waist to pull her even closer to him, the gray troll heard the princess squeak in embarrassment. They were so close that they could feel the heat coming off both of their cheeks..

Unable at this time to dwell on the fact he was holding in his arms, his not-so secret crush. He ''lept'- not literally of course- into action as he moved the flower back into the position it was in. Covering the both of them in darkness.

"Branch! What's going o-" Poppy began to ask but he covered her mouth with his hand.

 _"Quiet!"_ the gray troll whisper-shouted. Using his hair again as a cloak he covered them both, making it look like nothing was there. Branch gulped as he tried not to look into the princess's eyes, which was hard because _they were **right there!**_ Instead he tried to focus on the sky, waiting for that creature to show up.

 ** _Caw CAW_**

 _"Branch,"_ she said so quietly, that if she wasn't as close, he might not have heard her; even with his sensitive ears.

Taking a deep breath, _"You wanted to know what happen to me?"_ Branch murmured just as quietly, finally looking into her eyes. As well as taking in her flushed face.

Poppy nodded.

 ** _CAW CAW_**

The creature sounded like it was right above them.

" _ **That** is part of what happened_ ," he said softly gesturing to the sky where the creature was, getting even closer. The troll in front of him inhaled sharply as her eyes widened; taking in the information given to her.

 ** _BOOM!_**

The ground shook as the creature landed next to the hole. Startled by the ground shaking Poppy's grip instinctively tightened around Branch's neck and waist, while being careful of his injuries.

 _"Just like clockwork,_ " the gray troll scowled glaring up at the entrance of the hole. Waiting for that creature to show its face, like he knew it would, ears twitching in anticipation. The survivalist waited for the princess to speak, since she wasn't known to stay silent for long periods of time.

But she stayed silent.

Quickly breaking his concentration to glance at Poppy, he felt his face became ~even more~ flushed, when he noticed that she was _staring at him_. Swallowing thickly as he tore his gaze away from hers looking back up at the entrance for both as way to distract him and to keep an eye on the creature. Which proved to work only with _one_ of his current problems as the creature began to move its giant head to look inside the hole.

Poppy, who had been staring at him trying to analyze each cut and bruise on Branch's face ~definitely NOT checking out his face. No siree~ had looked up to see just as the creature began to move. Her eyes widen as she took in the creature.

The creature had beady yellow eyes with red around the pupils, a long sharp beak that was hooked in the front. Its body reminded Poppy of a vulture's, it had long sharp talons that looked like they could tear into flesh with no effort. It has a huge wingspan with claws at the tip of the wings, able to be used to grip and hold onto things. Its body was black with white rings in a way that made it looked like it kept moving down the body, in a repeated pattern.

The creature bent its head to peer down into the hole waiting for any signs of movement, since it could _smell_ something; _two_ somethings to be exact. But it didn't _see_ anything!

" _Don't move._ "

" _Wasn't planning to._ "

Frustrated the creature let out an annoyed trill while ruffling up its feathers. Lifting its head the creature glared down the hole before sulking away, the ground shaking with each step before taking off into the sky.

Both trolls held onto one another for a couple of extra seconds, to make sure that the creature was actually gone and not just hiding out waiting for them to move. Realizing that they were still wrapped tightly around one another, flushed they both unwrapped themselves and the princess moved to sit beside him. The gray troll rubbed the back of his neck while before looking back at the entrance; while the pink troll rubbed her arm.

Poppy was the first to break the silence, "Do you think it's gone?"

Scowling as his hardened gaze watched the entrance of the hole, he let out a sigh as his hair began to uncloak them. "I think so," he responded turning to look at her. "But we have to be careful, it might just be hiding out somewhere close."

She nodded in understandment. Out of nowhere a smile slowly began to take over her face, which was freaking out the grumpy survivalist. She began leaning toward him eyes as wide as her smile. Branch, clearly freaked out, started leaning away as much as he could. Which wasn't very far due to his leg.

"P-P-Poppy! What are you doi- _oomf!_ "

Grunting in slight pain as he felt the princess threw her arms around his neck in a impromptu hug time. Using the ground to brace himself as well as the princess, who was practically hanging off his neck. He started to scowl, while his heart began to beat harder, when she began nuzzling him.

"Poppy. What in _trolls_ name are you doing?"

Not even stopping she replied "I'm hugging you! Isn't it obvious?"

"I know _that_! I mean **_why_** are you hugging me?" he questioned. "You know I don't do hugs, plus it's not even hug time."

This time she did stop nuzzling him, pulling back only far enough to look at him, without unwrapping her arms from his neck. She stared at him like he's missing the obvious reason she hugged him. Heck a _baby troll_ could easily see why she hugged him! Realizing he truly _didn't_ know why she was hugging him. _'Most likely because he refuses to be happy, I mean who DOESN'T want to be happy?'_ Poppy thought to herself as she fully pulled away. Giving him a smile that rivaled the stars, one that reminded him why she was loved by all the other trolls. Well, _that_ among other traits, like being a good princess.

"You looked like you needed it. Plus I love you!"


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I wanted to clarify that this story takes place a couple years before the movie.**

Chapter 3

 _….._ ** _WHAT!?_**

Branch's mind screamed before he froze, trying to process what his crush just said. The ' _I love you_ ' bouncing around in his head, as he tried to figure out if she meant it romantically or platonically.

' _Romantically!_ ' his heart called out, while his mind simultaneously yelled " ** _Platonically!_** "

" _Uhhhhh Branch? Hellooo?"_

As he came back to reality the survivalist noticed that Poppy had been waving her hand in front of his face, a concerned look on her face. Branch swallowed hard as he asked the question he was dreading to hear the answer to.

"Y-y-you love me?"

That stupid (beautiful) smile came back beaming brighter than ever as she jumped up to stand in front of him, "Of course!"

Feeling his heart beat even faster, a smile slowly began to form on his face.

"I love you like I love all my friends!"

 ** _'Platonically. What did I say!_** ' his mind said as whatever smile was forming dropped.

 **(AN: And somewhere in the distance you can hear Branch's small heart shatter into a million pieces.)**

Staring at her with a deadpanned look, he tried to ignore the aching feeling in his heart, as she just smiled at him.

Deciding that there are more pressing matters than his broken heart, which he will deal with later when he is alone in his bunker; obviously through poems. Branch decided to focus on their current problems, like getting back to the troll village. Where he was pretty sure everyone at the moment was frantically looking for the missing princess.

" _Boy, don't I feel special._ " the grumpy troll replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

He took in Poppy's annoyed face for a moment before noticing that her cut was still bleeding. Sitting up against the side of the hole he gently grabbed her left arm, staying careful of her injuries, and brought it toward him to examine how much damage was done. Luckily it wasn't injured too badly but she might need a couple stitches on the cut.

Kneeling down next to Branch, to let him get a better view of her arm. She exclaimed, "But you are! I worry about you Branch. You're the only gray troll in all of troll village!"

"Yeah, I think every troll who isn't color blind can see that, Poppy." Branch remarked. Letting go of Poppy's arm he moved to his torn shorts and ripped off a line of fabric from it.

The princess huffed in annoyance at the remark.

Taking the fabric the survivalist ripped it in half and turned back to her arm; using one half to clean the blood up.

"Whether you believe it or not it's true! I do worry and care about you, Branch!" she told him.

The grumpy survivalist peered up at her with one eyebrow raised, while he finished cleaning up the blood as best he could. "Well of course you do. You're the _princess_ , it's your job to worry and care about your trolls." Pulling away from her arm he dug through his backpack, pulling out a flower petal that was made into a makeshift sack tied shut with a blade of grass to keep it closed.

Untying the grass only slightly Branch dropped the blood soaked fabric inside. Folding the second piece of fabric in half, he turned back to her arm. Placing it on top of the cut, he reached onto her hair and pulled out a long strand of ribbon. Poppy winced as he applied a bit of pressure on the fabric, he began wrapping the ribbon around her arm.

"I don't care about them just because I'm a princess, I care about them because they are all my friend! Including you! Why do you think I came out looking for you? I wouldn't do that for just any troll!" the male stopped wrapping her arm and gave her a look that said ' _Really_?'

"Okay I _would_ do it for other trolls too. _Butttt_ I wouldn't come to rescue you without our frien-"

"Your friends."

" _ **Our**_ friends. Don't fight it. For just any old troll, I'm sure if they knew that you were down here they'd be rushing down here to help you-"

Branch scoffed quietly ' _No they wouldn't. You don't see how they look at me when you're not looking_.' he bitterly thought to himself, remembering that every time she turns away from the snack pack or even when he passes them by himself, he'll get a hateful glare from them all. Tuning out her " _If you'd just come out of your bunker and come sing, dance, hug and party with us more and just be nicer to everyone, I'm sure everyone will accept you and you'll be finally be happy!_ " speech. One that he's heard thousands of time before, his mind flashed back to the first time the snack pack gave him those nasty looks.

 _Flashback- Young Branch's pov_

 _It's been 2 years this day since gra…..gran… **she** died. She had been wrongly eaten months before that horrible bergen holiday and it was all my fault. Blinking back tears I could feel my ears droop a bit with sadness, I rubbed my eyes "You will **not** cry now!" I told myself. I didn't want to come out of my newly forming survival bunker today, but I was ran out of firewood and it was getting colder at night. Picking up another stick and added it to the pile I held under my arm, decided that this should be enough for tonight I started heading back to my bunker; when something caught my attention._

 _A voice._

 _A **familiar** sounding singing voice. I was unable to ignore it, feeling my heart beat a bit faster, I quickly made my way toward the sound. Peaking out from behind a bush to see who was singing, I felt my shoulders and ears drop when I noticed who was singing. It was Princess Poppy singing to a group of trolls, I guess her friends._

 _"_ Of course that wasn't **her** stupid! **She's** dead remember!? And it's all _your_ fault! _" that voice in the back of my mind screamed at me. Feeling my heart ache in pain at what the voice said, I could feel tears starting to prick at the corners of my eyes. Swiftly turning around to leave I suddenly came nose to nose with the pink princess herself._

 _"AHHH!" I screamed in surprise dropping my sticks as I fell down onto my butt. Hearing laughter I looked up to see her friends laughing at me, even she was giggling at me! Feeling anger and annoyance start to rise inside me I quickly got onto my feet, growling lowly as I snatched up my sticks. 'I don't need this! **Especially** not today! I need to get back to my bunker **now**.' I thought to myself. I turned around to leave when she suddenly appeared in front of me again! Making me scream and drop my sticks again! Luckily this time I didn't fall down._

 _"Quit doing that!" I snapped at her, bending down to pick up my sticks. Again._

 _"I've never see a troll like you before?" she mused staring at me, "Are you new?"_

 _"What? Is that supposed to flatter me?" I scoffed grabbing the last stick. "And no, I'm not new. Now leave me alone." I tried to move around her but she just blocked my path._

 _The pink troll looked me up and down before she tilting her head and asked, "What's your name?"_

 _"I'm not telling you. Now get out of my way,"_

 _When I tried to move past her she just blocked me again! Growling lowly I tried again with no luck! Every time I tried go past her, she would just block me! Even when I turned around SHE WAS RIGHT THERE! I could hear her friends laugh at me as we went around one another like some kind of rehearsed dance, me trying to leave and her constantly blocking me. Shaking in anger I could feel my blood start to boil as I stared at her smug face. 'You will not hurt the princess. You will **not** hurt the princess. You will **not hurt the princess.** ' I told myself, inhaling sharply._

 _'_ Ha! You just got bested by the princess! And she's barely three!' _the voice taunted me._

 _"What do you want?" I questioned with restraint trying not to hiss out the question, while exhaling sharply. Poppy's smug face dissolved into a bright huge smile that for some unknown reason made the tips of my ears a little bit red._

 _"What's your name?" the princess asked again still smiling wide. Twitching my ear in annoyance as I answered, "Branch."_

 _Her smile never leaving, actually it got bigger. "Well Branch-" she started reaching into her hair and pulled out an invitation? I gave her a distasteful look as she held the invitation in front of me, "You are officially invited to my birthday party tomorrow. In which I will be turning three, it will be so much fun! And I want you to be there," she finished still holding the invitation for me to take._

 _"It's going to be loud!" "And it's going to be poppin'!" I heard some of her friends call out from the background._

 _We just stared at one another for a couple more seconds before giving her a fake smile while plucking the invitation out of her hand._

 _"Poppy, I will definitely-" I began leaning closer to her eye level "-Not be going to your party. Not now, now ever" I told her putting the invitation back into her hair. I heard her friends gasp loudly in surprise behind me._

 _'_ Look at you, look at how _pathetic_ you are. Being rude and disrespectful to the _princess._ No wonder why it's your fault _ **she's** _ dead _._ You're just a horrible troll _.' the voice in my head mocked. I could feel my emotions swirl around inside me making my head pound, from what the voice said, from what today is, to the pink princess, heck even to the way I'm acting right now. I need to get out of here. I need to be alone. **Now**!_

 _"Hey! That is no way to treat the princess!" one of her annoying friends shouted at me._

 _"Well then," I deadpanned grabbing one of my sticks and used it to block Poppy from getting in front of me, "Excuuuuse me **Princess**. But I am leaving, I bid you adieu. Have a nice rest of the day."_

 _I was almost gone behind a bush toward my bunker when I heard Poppy call out to me._

 _"Wait Branch! Why won't you come to my party?!"_

 _Glancing over my shoulder to look at her, she looked at me with innocent wide eyes that held unlimited optimism. The kind of eyes that I used to have. After letting out a long sigh I inhaled deeply before turning around to face her._

 _"Because I want to stay alive and not get eaten by a bergen who, mind you, we just barely escaped from a little less than a year and a half ago! Now if you all don't mind being eat then go ahead and have that "loud, poppin', party." that will surely attract a bergen or some other dangerous creature here, while I stay safe and alive in my new bunker. I bet young trolls taste delicious. Now if you excuse me I need to head back to my bunker, where I should have been this whole time instead of wasting precious hours having meaningless conversations with trolls who don't understand that the world isn't all cupcakes and rainbows." I told her, straight to the point._

 _As I began turned around I heard a sound that made my heart stop._

 ** _Ping_**

 _"HUG TIME!" the group of trolls shouted then hug in one big group hug. Before I could react Poppy lunged herself at me with arms wide and smiling bright, her eyes twinkling as she yelled, "Hug time!"_

 _I dropped my sticks onto the ground in shock! I could feel her small arms wrapped tightly around my waist. The last time I was hug was… was… right before **she** … **she**. My mind flashed back to her death as I watch **her** … **her**. Tears were forming in my eyes, my emotions were bubbling over! I couldn't take it anymore! **I NEED TO LEAVE!**_

 _" **GET OFF ME!** " I shouted pushing her off me. She cried out in pain as she landed on the ground with hard thud. I could feel my throat tighten as I began panicking, realizing what I had just done._

 _"POPPY!" I heard her friends call out to her in concern and shock pushing past me to get to the pink troll, who was crying holding her arm. They began to comfort the young princess while I slowly backing away feeling my entire body shaking, and feeling like I was going to throw up. I tried to begin forming the words to apologize when her friends sent me horrible looks and glares that just scream, 'Leave.'_

 _So I did._

 _I just took off running in no particular direction, just away from everybody, feeling the tears start to run down my face._

 _While I was running away I could hear Creek tell the princess,"It's okay Poppy his aura is as black and cold as his heart. He doesn't deserve your happiness and kindness."_

 _The last thing I heard before I was to far away to hear them anymore was Poppy saying,_

 _" **But everyone deserves to be happy….."**_

 _Flashback over_

"Hmm, Cute." Poppy hummed staring down at the ribbon. Branch, who was coming out of his flashback, shook his head slightly before staring down at the ribbon; which he had unconsciously tied into a little bow.

"Oh uh," the survivalist coughed slightly his ears twitching,"S-sorry Pops, I'll fix it."

The princess shook her head holding up her hands to stop him, "Don't, I like it!" she told him smiling.

"Alright then," Branch started, "Now that your injury is taken care of, we have to focus on getting out off here-"

"Wait! What about your injury?" Poppy asked with concern tilting her head.

"I was just about to tell you but _someone_ interrupted me," he teased raising an eyebrow, "As I was saying we need to focus on getting out of here. But I can't move my leg so I need you to get two sticks the size of my leg. Do you still have more ribbon in your hair?"

The troll in front of him beamed, "Of course!" The pink princess jumped up to her feet ready to take off to get the sticks when a hand wrapped around her wrist.

"Wait!"

Turning to glance over at Branch she noticed that he was staring at her with a look in his eyes that made her heart race. The gray troll himself was seemingly frozen in his place as he looked at her while still holding her wrist. "Yeah Branch? What is it?"

Coming back to reality the survivalist realizing he was still holding her wrist, he quickly let go like his hand was burned, placing it next to him instead.

"Just be careful out there, Poppy. And please don't get eaten." he told her sincerely, while avoiding her eyes that had gotten bigger after his sentence.

" _AWWW_ ," the princess cooed loudly slightly startling the gray toll, "You _do_ care about me!"

Flustered, Branch shook his head while crossing his arms. "No!" he turned his head to look away from her, fighting the blush that was trying to take over his face, "It's just that if the village found out that you were with me before you were eaten, than they'd all blame me. And then probably send me to Bergen town to be eaten myself as punishment for letting the princess be eaten." he rambled as Poppy gave him a deadpanned look.

 ** _Ping!_**

The sound caught both of the trolls off guard, but once they realized what it was both the princess and the survivalist had different reactions.

For Branch after he heard the sound his had heart froze realizing what that sound meant, his eyes widen in horror as he slowly moved his head to look at the pink troll.

While for Poppy after she heard the sound began to smirk as she stared at the gray troll, slowly opening her arms.

"Poppy no!"

"Poppy _YES!"_

"No Poppy! You already got your hug earlier!" Branch yelled at her trying to crawl away, but due to his leg wasn't able to very far.

"What are you going to do? _Run away?_ " Poppy teased, her arms now fully open, slowly approaching him.

"POPPY DON'T YOU DARE!"

The princess ignored his cries and lunged at him, staying careful of his injuries, while yelling.

"HUG TIME!"

" _AHHHHHHHHH!"_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

" _I'm baaack~"_ Poppy sang out as she came back swinging into the hole holding four sticks about the same size.

"I can see that, Poppy. You didn't need to sing it," Branch remarked, before noticing the four sticks sticks she was holding, "Poppy why do you have four sticks? I only need two," he observed. "Did you get hurt again?"

The princess let out a light laugh waving her hand in a dismissive movement, "No, no Branch I'm fine."

She walked over to him placing the sticks by his right leg as he sat up to a better position, making it easier to work on his leg. "It's just I was thinking,"

"That's never a good sign," the survivalist teased.

Sitting down next to him she smacked his arm lightly, as he chuckled, "Hey!" Poppy cried pretending to be offended. "As I was saying before some _troll_ rudely interrupted me," she gave him a pointed look, "It's just that I was thinking about your legs and I realized that they are a lot thicker than mine!"

The male's face flushed slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh, thanks?"

Giggling she responded "I didn't mean it like _that_. It's just that one on each side would work for me since I have thinner legs, but since you have thicker legs I figured that two on each side would be a sturdier option!" Turning to look at him, "Don't ya think?" Poppy asked.

A thoughtful look came upon Branch's face before looking over at Poppy.

"That's actually really smart, Poppy, I didn't even think about that. Nice work," The survivalist praised, ' _She's might be a bit smarter than I give her credit for,_ ' he thought to himself. The pink troll beamed at that statement, Branch never praises anything or _any troll_ , ~except his bunker~ that she knew of. So for him to praise _her_ , the one troll he constantly was like finding out the entire bergen species had gone extinct! Reaching into her hair, he pulled a pair of scissors and started to put a long strand of ribbon.

"Geeze Poppy! How much ribbon do you keep in your hair!?"

"More than I'm willing to admit."

Finally pulling out the last bit of the ribbon out of her hair, the male troll turned back to his leg, placing the ribbon and the scissor placing them down. Staring at his twisted leg, slowly it dawned upon him that they would have to do something neither of them are going to like. Glancing to look at the troll next to him, Branch let out heavy sigh at what was to happen next; he didn't know how Poppy would feel having to do what he would ask of her next.

Poppy on the other hand, heard the sigh, noticed the look on the gray's face, and became immediately concerned. Uneasiness and concern were laced in her voice as she asked, "What is it?"

"I just realized that in order to splint my leg," rubbing the back of his neck, trying to avoid her eyes, "I'm going to need you to twist my leg until it's straight. So that I can properly splint it," he informed the troll next to him.

Poppy's eyes widen as she absorbed the information given to her, feeling her heart beat faster as her stomach dropped. ' _That means that I-I would have to…_ ' the princess's mind began to pound at the thought of herself having to bring pain to any troll. Even a troll as grumpy and sad, and sometimes rude as Branch!

"Hurt me, I know." The male said out loud as if he read her thoughts. Silence fell between the two of them as they just stared at each other.

Branch blood froze in his veins as he observed the female next to him, trying to figure out what was going through the princess mind, and why she was so lifeless. A state that he has never once seen her in no matter how tough the situation was, right now she wasn't the happy go-lucky optimistic princess that the whole troll village looked up to. Right now she was acting the opposite of herself, emotionless and unresponsive, like an empty shell. He finally remembered _why_ she was reacting like this.

Trolls as a species are the most happiest creatures ever! Constantly singing, dancing and hugging, never bringing intentional harm to any other creature, especially another troll. So for a troll to bring harm to another troll was like a huge unspoken forbidden no-no, another huge unspoken forbidden no-no was to sell out your entire species! But no troll would _ever_ do that, right?

After sometime of her just lifelessly staring at him, her mouth dropped in shock. "Isn't there a different way? There has to be a less painful way to do this! Isn't there one!?" she exclaimed breathing rapidly. Her eyes wide with hope, hope that there was a 'cupcake and rainbow' way to all of this.

"I wish there was, Poppy." the survivalist replied, shaking his head no. Noticing that all this was starting to get to her he gently grabbed her hands; as his way to comfort her. Staring at her Branch spoke again "I know that what I'm asking you is hard. But I need your help if I'm ever going to get out of here alive," he confessed sincerely.

Tearing her hands away Poppy jumped to her feet spinning around to face him, "Branch I can't do it! What if I just go back to the village and get more trolls to help!?" she started pacing back and forth, grabbing her hair for comfort. Rotating around to face him again "There has to be a less painful way! I don't want you to be in any more pain!" she cried out.

Branch began to feel the blood boil in his veins as anger and annoyance rose inside him, bringing two fingers to rub his now throbbing temples. As much as he has intense feelings for the princess he forgot about how stubborn she can be when it comes to things non 'cupcakes and rainbows', ie: the real world.

' _Doesn't she realize how bad the situation is!? No of course not! She's never actually face a real problem like this before._ ' the grumpy troll angrily thought to himself.

"I just told you there isn't one, Poppy!" telling her forcefully trying not to let the anger in his voice show. "You can't go back and bring more trolls here! If you do than that _beast_ will get them!" the male stressed, gesturing past the entrance of the hole toward the sky; where the beast will show up again soon. Jerking his head back toward her, watching as she continued to pace back and forth, "It's already hard enough with you here! You don't really want to endanger the other trolls in village now, do you?!" Branch barked. Crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall of the hole, ears twitching in annoyance.

Poppy stopped mid pace, slowly turning to look at him cocking her head to the side, "What do you mean it's hard enough with me here?!" she yelled at him, "And what do you know about that beast, Branch?"

Something inside Branch snapped, he didn't know whether it was because of the loss of blood or the low patience and anger from the whole situation.

"I DON'T KNOW POPPY OKAY?! I barely know anything about it! All I know is that it's attracted by smell, it doesn't like the forest, staring at it for too long can disorient a troll and that ever since I've fell down this hole it comes back to check about every 2 hours. Meaning that it'll be back soon and that your powerful strawberry, sunshine and bubble gum scent is going to lead it to straight to us if we can't get into the forest in time!" he growled yelling back breathing heavily, his chest rising up and down, from all the different emotions that he was currently feeling.

Things were quiet between the two after Branch's rant the only sound heard was the gray trolls heavily panting and the pink trolls quiet breathing.

The male was watching the female, waiting to see how she would react. How she reacted, he probably should have seen coming a mile away.

"AWWW," she cooed bring her hands up to her chest. "You think I smell like strawberry, sunshine and bubble gum? That's the nicest thing I think I've ever heard you say about me!"

Without warning she's suddenly on her knees hugging him, nuzzling her face into the side of his neck.

"Seriously? _That's_ the part you focus on?" He huffed rolling his eyes as he's being smothered by the pink troll. How'd they end up like this during a fight he'll never know, but for Poppy she just didn't want him to see that this was affecting her; much more than she wanted him to know. So she reacted in a typical Poppy way; by hugging him!

Silence fell between the two of them after that as Branch watched Poppy slowly become more nervous by the second, her body shaking a bit as she curled up in his lap. Staying careful of his injuries. The grays troll's heart ached as he stared down at the princess in his arms, ' _I've never seen her like this. I probably shouldn't have yelled at her. I am asking her,_ _ **the princess**_ _, to break a huge forbidden rule_.'

Sighing he spoke again, all anger and annoyance removed from his voice "Look Poppy, I know that this is going to be hard, trust me I'm not going to like it anymore than you do. But think of it this way the longer we wait the less chance I'll have my leg in the end and that we'll get out of this hole alive."

"That didn't make me feel any better," she mumbled into his neck.

"It wasn't supposed to, It was supposed to put the reality on the situation. So a little pain here is better than a lot of pain later. Don't you think?" Branch asked.

"I guess so,"

"Good."

She still didn't move after he said that, an idea popped into Branch's mind. Leaning down to her ear he whispered, " _Besides I'm going to need to rely on you to help me walk, which means you can give me lots of side hugs and I can't do_ _ **anything**_ _about it. Besides what am I going to do_ _**run away**_?"

Poppy couldn't help but giggle at what he said, she pulled back to look at him a huge grin spreading across her face. The princess was starting to feel like herself again!

"There's the princess who loves to annoy me," he teased smirking at her when she giggled harder. She couldn't help but press a quick kiss to his cheek as a way to thank him since cheek kisses were a semi-common thing among trolls. If not done romantically most of the time it's used as a way to thank someone on a more personal level.

"Thank you," she whispered against his cheek, inwardly snickering to herself as the pink troll could feel his face getting warmer.

"Y-your welcome?" the male replied flustered, a bit dazed and confused.

Jumping back up to her feet, taking a deep breath before she faced him again this time with a determined look and a can-do attitude.

"I'm ready!"

Nodding in acknowledgment, he grabbed the ribbon and scissors, and quickly cut it into five smaller pieces of ribbon, four about the same size and one longer than the rest. As Poppy moved to kneel in front of his leg. Once cut Branch carefully moved four of the ribbon strands up and down his right leg; two above his knee and two below his knee. Grabbing the sticks he placed two on each side then looked up at the troll in front of him.

"Alright Poppy when I say 'now' I want you to twist my leg till it's straight and hold it there, until I say you can let go. Okay?" he asked grabbing each side of the closest ribbon; ready to tie it down.

Taking another deep breath she put on a brave face, "Let's do this!" the princess told him with a determined smile. Placing her hands gently on his foot, ready to move it.

"You ready?" he asked. Once she nodded the survivalist took a deep breath himself before he spoke, " _Now_."

Gently grabbing his foot Poppy began to twist it, wincing when she heard the strained grunts and hisses of pain; that Branch ~unsuccessfully~ tried to hold back. Once the leg was as straight as she could get it, the pink troll looked back at the gray troll and nodded. Telling him that he could begin tying.

After receiving the nod Branch quickly began tying the ribbons, securing the sticks against legs, as quickly as he could. While he was tying the ribbons down the gray troll was trying to hold back how much pain he was in, trying not to worry the princess even more. But he couldn't help the occasional strained hiss that escaped past his lips.

" _Almost done_ ," he whispered his voice strained, biting the inside of his cheek, trying to stay quiet.

Poppy knew he was in a lot of pained and her heart ached knowing that one: couldn't do anything to stop it and two: she currently was bringing him more pain.

' _A bit of pain here is better than a lot of pain later'_ she thought to herself as she repeated what he told her earlier, ' _'It's for the greater good. Its for the greater good. It's for the greater good!'_

"Are you okay, Branch?" Poppy asked concerned after he finished tying the fourth strand of ribbon, the one closest to her, down. Never letting go of his foot. Peering up at her he gave her a small tight smile.

"I'll be fine Poppy," he tried to reassure her. But his tense voice told a different story. Turning he grabbed the fifth ribbon strand, looked back at his foot. "Can you move your hands slightly?" he murmured.

Without a word she nodded slowly before moving her hands, never leaving his foot, but moved just enough to leave him enough room to do what he needed to do. Leaning forward he slipped the ribbon around the middle of his foot, crossing the strands as he wrapped it tight around his ankle. Before he also wrapped each side of the ribbon around each set of sticks, before he finally began to tie it off.

As he was tying the final ribbon down, the grumpy troll could feel the pink troll's eyes on him as he worked. ' _What is with her and_ _ **staring**_ _at me?'_ he thought to himself. Finally he was done, in quite the amount of pain, but they were done. The survivalist felt his ears twitch as he realized that there was a distinct lack of sound. The only thing he could hear was his labored breathing and occasionally a grunt of pain.

"You can let go now," Branch stated breaking the silence that filled the air, startling Poppy; who had just been staring down at his foot.

Her hands lingered for a couple more seconds before fully pulling away. Placing her hands in her lap as the injured male sat back up against the wall of the hole. Before she could start thinking about what just occurred a pair of soft gray hands suddenly, but gently, grabbed hers gaining her attention. Snapping her head up to look at the male, the look he was currently giving her blew her heart away.

Branch had a rare sincere smile, and despite all the cuts and bruises on his face, he was still a very attractive troll, his face was the most relaxed she's ever seen it; despite all. And his eyes are what made her heart beat even faster. In those soft light blue eyes held gratitude, care and a whole different range of emotions she just couldn't figure out.

"Thank you, Poppy." the grumpy troll expressed sincerely.

Suddenly Poppy began to laugh lightly, trying to ignore her beating heart.

"How much blood have you lost?" she questioned pulling one of her hands away to cover her mouth, trying to muffle her giggles.

Branch's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at her in confusion, "What?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Branch?" she teased snickering, placing her hand back into his.

"Har-har-har," Branch deadpanned, this time he was the one to pull his hands away, crossing his arms. Giving her a smirk he retorted, "Oh yeah? Well where was the always 'cupcakes and rainbows' Poppy earlier?"

"Probably off with the normal grumpy gray Branch," she snorted.

"As much as I _love_ spending time with you down in this hole," the survivalist sarcastically began, "We need to get out of here before that beast comes backs, which will be soon." he finished making a quick gesture toward the sky.

As if she knew what the gray troll was going to say next, she was already on her feet holding a hand out to him.

"Let's head back home," Poppy smiled at him, waiting for Branch to take her hand.

' _Like I have any other choice?_ ' he thought to himself chuckling, while shaking his head.

The survivalist grabbed her hand letting her haul him up onto his good leg, leaning against her for support. Branch wrapped one arm around her shoulder and another around her waist, while Poppy wrapped both her arms around his waist. Using both their hairs they hooked onto a nearby flower pulling themselves out of the hole to the ground above, once they landed Branch had unintentionally tightened his grip around the princess; bringing her into a side hug that made Poppy giggle like she had just been tickled ~he actually did tickle her by accident~.

"Maybe you should twist your leg more often if that means I get lots of side hugs from you," the princess teased as they began walking back the way Poppy came before.

"Start making a wishlist princess, because that is going to number one on it," he rebutted, pleased with himself when he heard Poppy laugh.

Branch was so wrapped up and relaxed while he and Poppy were walking and teasing each other that he didn't even bother trying to picked up anything past his princess laughter in his sensitive ears. Both trolls were so lost in their own little world that they both missed a _**very**_ important sound that was much closer than either troll realized.

 _ **CAW!**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 _A creature flew through the air, flapping its massive wings, heading back toward the same hole it's been stalking for the past 3 days._

 _The creature couldn't stop thinking about the delicacy that laid inside the hole, inside the hole was_ _ **a troll**_ _! Trolls were a delicacy to the creature, even a rotten gray troll was better than no troll. Being that no troll would ever venture out this far, away from the safety of the forest; a place the creature would_ _ **never**_ _venture to. Ever since that one troll escaped from it, and fell into that hole the creature has been checking back every two hours or so, waiting for the troll to make a mistake and accidentally move giving away its location inside the hole._

 _The creature knew the troll was still in the hole, seeing as it could smell the troll and the blood that was keeping it trapped inside each time the creature visited the hole. But the last time it checked the hole a new smell caught the creature's attention, the smell of new blood, the smell of a new troll! Unfortunately like its original prey when the creature looked inside the hole it couldn't see either prey! Ultimately leaving the hole the creature flew back to it's tree, keeping it's beady yellow-red eyes on alert for any obvious movement of the flowers, giving away the location if the prey ever moved, and used the flowers to help find their way out._

 _With the prospect of having_ _ **two**_ _trolls the creature decided that this time it will go back a bit sooner than normal and this time approaching in a different way. Hopefully catching its prey by surprise._

 _Letting out a powerful_ _ **CAW!**_ _Beady eyes found the hole from it's position in the sky, with a powerful flap of its wings the creature dove toward a spot that was nearby the hole, shaking the ground as it landed. Dropping down low to the ground the creature slowly crept toward the hole ready to hopefully attack, but when it reached the hole and looked inside the creature jerked back in surprise and shock._

 _The hole was empty!_

 _The creature let out a low sound of anger and annoyance that sounded like a mix between a growl and a trill. In anger the creature lashed out at a nearby flower, completely destroying it into smaller pieces, its feathers all ruffled up in anger. Suddenly jerking its head up as its nose caught onto a nearby scent, rotating its head toward the direction of the scent, the scent smelt recent. Meaning that they left only a short time ago, and were still nearby._

 _Thanks to it's excellent eyesight the creature spotted small drag marks and footprints in the ground nearby as well as drips of blood every so often. Instead of taking off into the sky the creature dropped back down to the ground following the trail, trying to stay as quiet as can be._

 _After a few minutes the creature abruptly halted in it's track licking its beak and gripping the ground. The creature eyes narrowed as it spotted its prey ahead in a small clearing, taking in the sight of both it's original gray prey and its new pink prey; the pink prey was laying on top of it's gray prey. The creature couldn't help but let out a low chirp while ruffling it's feathers up in excitement, pink prey were a lot better than gray prey! Gray prey tasted rotten but pink prey, pink prey tasted the best out of any prey! The creature didn't want to eat the gray prey after the pink prey seeing it would leave a rotten taste in it's mouth, but it also didn't want to eat the gray prey first since it might ruin the taste of the pink prey! So which prey did it want to eat first?_

 _Noticing that the gray prey was moving the pink prey off of it the creature moved out of the gray prey's line of sight, ducking into a dense area of grass nearby. Laying low on the ground, eyes never leaving it's prey._

 _The creature laid waiting in the dense grass for the perfect moment to strike its prey, beady eyes watching and waiting for its prey to be alone._

 _Waiting._

 _For the perfect time to strike._

 **About at the same time** _ **.**_

"Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"I'm _positive_ I know where I'm going!" Poppy reassured Branch as they stopped in a familiar area of flowers, before looking away and whispering " _I hope_."

"I heard that!" the male grumbled turning his head away from her's, he saw what looked like same flower again, for like the 3rd time. Although they _were_ in a flower field. He didn't know how long they had been walking, but the pain in his leg was slowly starting to increase.

Turning back to look at her, "Why are you insisting we have to go back to that tree you've been repeating in my ear for who knows how long now. I don't understand why we couldn't just go straight?" he asked.

"Because Mr. grumpy pants if we get back to the tree where I saw the poppy patch from, _then_ I'll definitely know where the path back home is!" the princess declared, then looked at him with a sly grin "Plus last time I went back to the tree, I wasn't hauling a grumpy gray troll around," she teased giving his waist a quick squeeze.

Rolling his eyes, he spotted a rock a couple feet from his right.

"Poppy," pointing at the rock, directing her attention to it, "Is that the same rock you hurt your arm on?"

Gasping the princess's grin got a bit bigger, "I think so! Let's go!" she started running practicality dragging Branch by his wrist along with her; as she bounded toward the rock. Temporarily forgetting about his injuries.

"POPPY! Slow down!" Branch yelled grunting in pain as his leg was being dragged along.

Once arriving at the rock, the princess suddenly stopped so fast that her partner was still moving full speed. Unable to stop himself in time he fell to the ground pulling the pink troll down with him. Branch hissed in pain as he hit the ground, and then immediately had the wind knocked out of him as Poppy fell down on top of him.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he dropped his head onto the ground, "I think I'd rather be eaten at this point," the male groaned.

Giggling slightly she apologized, "Whoops! Sorry Branch."

Not moving from her spot, the pink troll glanced up at the rock, then let out a loud groan herself.

"Ughhh! It's not the same rock!"

"That's just great," Branch deadpanned, he looked down at the pink troll. "Now can you get off me?"

"Hmmmmm," said troll hummed pretending to be in thought. She shook her head no, than gave him a smirk, "I think I'll stay _rightttt_ here." she mused curling up against him. "This whole situation has made me a bit tired," faking a yawn, "I think I'm just going to take a quick nap~" the princess snuggled closer to the survivalist, biting her lip trying not to laugh.

The gray troll rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help it when a small smile broke out on his face; Branch could feel that she was trying hard not to laugh. He was just about to relish in the fact that he was able to spend so much alone time his princess and for once he was actually feeling as close to relaxed as one could get given the situation. When that stupid voice in his head had to appear and ruin things for him.

' _What are you doing you_ _ **idiot!**_ _You're being probably being hunted_ _right now_ _! And_ _ **what**_ _are you doing?! Having fun! You know what happened_ _ **last time**_ _you had fun!? You got_ _ **her**_ _killed! Because you were too busy_ _ **singing**_ _and having_ _ **fun**_ _! Do you really want to get the princess_ _killed_ _?! Now stop fooling around you_ _ **pathetic troll!**_ ' the voice snapped yelling at him. Branch couldn't help but inwardly wince at the harsh words the voice had said. Branch hated that voice, he honestly _hated_ that voice with all his heart, he _**hated**_ how the voice has so much control over him and his life. He _hated_ that the voice knew exactly what to say to make his heart ache in pain, and what was even worse? Was that he hated that what the voice said to him was _right_.

"You can sleep when we get back to the village, princess. Now off," The survivalist instructed with his own teasing grin; he didn't want Poppy to see that he was hurting from more than just his external injuries. Using his hair he wrapped it around Poppy's waist pulling her off him before she could latch herself onto him.

"Booooo! You're no fun," Poppy voiced as she was being moved against her will. The princess pouted and crossed her arms when all Branch did in return to her comment was stick his tongue out at her while he sat up.

"Oh how mature!" she huffed trying not to laugh herself. But ultimately failed, letting out a small laugh before cutting it short when the pink troll noticed that Branch was not just trying to sit up, but instead trying to stand up on his own.

"Branch! _"_ Poppy cried out in concern, jumping onto her feet and catching him before he fell onto the ground. "What were you thinking!?" the princess exclaimed. Looking at the troll in her arms with distress written all over her face.

"Poppy, we need to get out of here, so I'm going to climb up onto one of the flowers and find us a new route," Branch explained trying to pull away from Poppy. The result was her tightening her grip on him frantically shaking her head no.

Staring at him like he had three heads, "Okay. Now I _know_ you lost a lot more blood than I thought. You're not seriously thinking of climbing up onto a flower in your condition?" she questioned with disbelief.

Worry and confusion fill the princess's mind, ' _What's wrong with him? One second I thought he was enjoying my hugs, but now it looks like he can't get away fast enough?'_ Watching the gray troll struggle in her arms. Another thought came to her mind one that made her stomach drop. ' _Did_ _I do something wrong?'_

The gray troll's ear twitched in annoyance, "Well, what do you expect me to do? Ask a flower for direction?" he asked impassively, still struggling to get out of her arms. Her grip was like steel! Or maybe he was just currently weaker due to what's happened over the past few days.

"No I _expect_ you to do nothing but rest against that rock, while _I_ go up onto a flower to look for the way out." spoken in a tone that left no room for argument. A tone that surprised both trolls, since Poppy only used that tone once before. When she was trollsitting a rowdy pair of twin trolls, and they nearly fell off a particularly high tree branch; the princess used that tone on them after she caught them.

But was Branch _really_ going to give up that easy?

"Poppy, I'm not letting you go up there. You'll be too exposed," he stated looking down at her. "Besides I can stand on my own two feet."

"No, you can't."

" _Yes,_ I can."

With an eyebrow raise repeating his '' _Really_?' look, she let go of the gray troll and stepped back. Pleased with herself when he practically face planted the ground, moaning in pain. She leaned over his body hands on her hips, giving him a smug _'I told you so_ ,' look. Branch lifted his head to look up at the princess with a deadpanned look, but was silent. He was too stubborn to verbally admit he was wrong, he didn't want to give Poppy the satisfaction of her besting him.

"Now that I've proven my point," the troll who could actually stand began; amusement clear as day in her voice. Wrapping her pink hair around Branch's waist she gently lifted him off the ground, "You are going to rest against this rock" she placed him down up against the rock. "And I am going up onto the flower."

Turning around to leave, a smile graced her face when she felt a hand grabbed her wrist, a warm fuzzy feeling appeared deep inside knowing that he cares about her; even if he always says he doesn't. Looking back over her shoulder she noticed something was off about Branch, he looked like a troll caught in headlights, but his eyes held so many different emotions.

"Just…..Just be careful up there, okay?" The survivalist cautioned, something to him just felt _off_. Straining his ears to see if he can hear anything unusual, he begrudgingly let go of her wrist to remind her. "And be aware of your surroundings. And no singing!"

Letting out a breathy laugh, "I will," she reassured him, trying to calm whatever was making him act this way. Wrapping her hair around a nearby flower she began to propel herself into the air, landing on the leaf of the flower. As she climbed up the stem of the flower she peered back down at the gray troll and notice that he was looking around; like he was trying to find something. Once at the top Poppy felt as if the sight knocked all the air in her lungs away, she couldn't help but take in the view.

' _No! Focus Poppy!'_ she scolded herself, shaking her head. The princess than began to look for a way back home.

Down below Branch had watched the pink troll take off into the air before whipping his head to his left, thinking he heard a noise. Continuing to look around him, he thought he saw what looked like to be a shadow from the corner of his eyes. Jerking his head in the direction of the so called shadow, he stared intensely in that direction; when he heard a voice call out to him.

"You know Branch?" Poppy yelled down to him as she continued looking around.

"What is it Poppy?" Yelling back, now scanning the area in front of him, looking and listening for anything unusual.

Twirling to peer down at the gray troll, " _Wellll_ its just that you never did tell me _why_ you were out this far….." her voice trailed off at the end, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. Was that…..a shadow?

Preoccupied with his self appointed job of lookout the male didn't notice that her voice trailed off, "Poppy, we don't have time to tell stories. We need to focus on getting out of here," he expressed sniffing the air when a faint scent caught his attention. Following the scent with his head, he noticed she hasn't responded, "Poppy?" he called up.

No response.

His heart sped up a bit "Poppy?!" he yelled up his concern rising. Snapping his head to his right when he heard a bit of rustling from past the flowers.

Still no response.

Beginning to panic a bit the survivalist started lifting his to look up at the flower the princess was on. When a much more…. _dangerous_ important sight caught his attention, a sight that made his heart freeze.

A shadow.

A shadow that was creeping over his body.

Slowly Branch turned around to find those beady yellow-red eyes staring straight back at him, pinning him down to ground. The creature licked it's beak as eyes stared the troll down keeping him frozen in place, slowly it began to make trilling sounds as its feathers began to move in a hypnotising pattern; successfully hypnotising the gray troll. Cawing the creature moved like lightning towards Branch ready to eat him whole!

The gray troll luckily snapped himself out of his trance just in time, kicking the creature's hooked beak just before it could grab him. But not without repercussions as the hook part of the beak cut his good foot. Angry that it's prey just kicked it's beak the creature lashed out at him, knocking his body away from the rock toward the edge of the clearing. Branch cried out in pain as he landed on the ground, he knew that he was bleeding from the newly given marks, he was too weak to move in time!

The creature climbed up onto the rock it's feather puffed making it look even more intimidating than it already was. Letting out a loud screechy _**CAW**_ the creature pushed off the rock propelling itself toward the helpless prey.

Poppy, after she called down to Branch, had seen the creature move from out of the shadows, its feather pattern immediately putting the pink princess into a trance; before she could even realize what she had seen! Hypnotized Poppy watched the creature appear behind Branch and couldn't do anything when it hypnotized the survivalist as well. But when she heard the gray troll cry out in pain she snapped out of her trance. Watching in horror as the creature climbed up onto the rock ready to attack the injured troll. Before Poppy could register what was happening her body moved on its own launching herself at the creature yelling his name the entire way down. Colliding with the creature's beak, she was able to divert it away from the survivalist; the only problem? She couldn't get away!

The creature became frantic as it was knocked from its path to it's prey. Something was in its beak! Snapping its beak down on whatever was in its mouth, startled the creature then started to take off into the sky.

For Branch everything that happening was in slow motion. He was petrified unable to move in time as he watch the creature launch itself at him screeching the entire time, feathers puffed up, wings stretched wide, beady yellow-red eyes never leaving his helpless body; coming closer by the second. In absolute horror he watched as Poppy appeared from above and hit the creature straight in the beak, effectively knocking it away before it could eat Branch! The gray troll felt his heart become destroyed and his body trembling in agony as he watched in absolute terror as the creature shut its beak down on the princess.

Reaching his hand out toward the creature as it started to take off, Branch howled in despair;

" _ **POPPY! NOOOOOOOO**_!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 _Branch's pov._

" _ **POPPY! NOOOOOOOO**_ _!"_

Howling in despair feeling my body trembling in agony, ' _NO, NOT AGAIN!'_ I thought to myself, watching the creature spread it's wings, about to take off toward the sky. Everything still feeling like it was in slow motion.

"BRANCH!" Poppy cried out struggling in the creature's beak, trying to break free. Looking at me with desperation, panic and fear in her eyes. She needs my help or she was definitely going to die! Feeling my breathing rapidly increase, it felt like my throat was closing up as I let panic and fear practically suffocate me at the thought of the one thing in my life that means everything to me _die_.

Suddenly for a split second the creature's beak changed into a hand and Poppy changed into _**her!**_ I feel like throwing up as the memory replayed right in front of me, on what felt like an endless inescapable loop.

" _BRANCH!_ " _**she**_ cried out but sounding like the princess's voice. Reality came crashing back like a thousand bricks as I watched the creature shot straight up into the sky. Poppy still struggling in its beak.

Growling lowly, " **No!** _Not_ this time," I whispered bitterly at the memory. ' _I am_ _ **not**_ _going to let someone I care about sacrifices themself for me again, I am_ _ **not**_ _the helpless young troll I once was, despite my injuries, I'm now older and stronger. I'm_ _ **not**_ _going to sit back, do nothing and let my fear stop me! I'm going to rescue her even if it means I_ _ **die**_ _. And_ _ **damn it**_ _I will sacrifice myself a thousand times over if that means Poppy will get to_ _ **live!**_ ' I could feel my blood boil inside me, letting the surging anger fuel me, until the only thing I could see was red.

Pushing myself off the ground a bit, ignoring my body as it screamed in pain, wrapping my hair around the closest flower in the direction the creature is going to fly in. I propelled myself toward the flower, and using the amount of speed gained, I swung myself on top of the flower, hissing in pain when I landed. Once on top I got into a crouching position, similar to an animal's, putting most of my weight on my hands and less injured leg, and shot my hair toward the creature, just trying to grab anything on it that I could hold on to. I missed grabbing that stupid creature's leg, rather hitting it instead of grabbing it. Making it even more agitated.

Temporarily stopping the creature rotated toward me narrowing its eyes, and then it managed to let out this loud ear-bleeding screech-like sound from its mouth, while still holding Poppy in it's beak. The sound made both Poppy and I cover our ears in an attempt to block the sound out.

Thanks to my sensitive hearing I could detect Poppy's voice hidden among the screech "BRANCH!"

Glancing up, still covering my ears, we caught each other's eyes and seem to have to have the same idea once our eyes connected. Launching our hair toward each other, I pushed myself off the flower trying to stand on my semi good leg, to get a bit extra distance.

DAMN IT!

We just missed each other by a _hair._ Falling back down onto the flower I noticed the creature stopped his screeching.

"I'm not close enough!" I snarled.

We were about to try again but the damn creature moved making us miss each other again, and started to fly off in it's original direction. Gaining a slight head start. But that's not going to stop me!

Using my semi-good leg I pushed off the flower that I was currently on, launching myself toward the next flower in the path; almost stumbling off as the flower swayed due to the new weight on it. I kept running like that, advancing from flower top to flower top, getting closer to the creature as it flew above the flower field but never close enough. My anger and determination overriding the agonizing pain that shot through my body with every movement I made.

As I kept running, trying to keep with the damn thing, both Poppy and I kept trying to wrap our hairs together so she could pull me up. But between trying to find flower tops to jump on that are still in my path, constantly trying to grab her hair, not falling off the flowers and trying not to let the agonizing pain stop me nor slow me down. Things are a bit …... _stressful_.

Quickly glancing ahead I noticed that we were coming up toward a clearing, too big to jump across, and if I go around I'll lose them.

' _I can't jump over the clearing, and I can't go around nor under the clearing. I can't afford to fall behind, I'm already just barely able to keep up with the damn thing!'_ letting out labored breaths advancing to the next flower, ' _Grrr, What do I do?!'_

' _ **Just give up. You can't save her.**_ ' the voice sneered.

"No!" I barked under my breath, "I won't give up!" jumping onto a much smaller blue flower, than I liked, I became extremely startled when I felt the blue flower bounce under me pushing me up higher as I jumped off, nearly missing the next flower. Unable to stop moving, despite the pain from that landing, I kept going. Without stopping I hastily took a look back at the blue flower in confusion. something about it seemed familiar to me. Staring back ahead the same type of blue flower was becoming more frequent, and at the edge of this side of the clearing, in the direction we were heading, was a cluster of the small blue flower. There is just something about those blue flowers, that has the gears in my mind turning, trying to figure what type of flower they are.

Slowly things began to click, "I think I figured it out," launching myself toward a blue flower in my path. My theory was confirmed; when I was once again bounced off a bit higher and faster than before. These blue flowers are Bondi flowers! They're also known as 'The Bouncing Flower.'!

I can use the Bondi flower to help me! But I need an idea and fast! Since the excruciatingly torturous pain that has been tormenting my body with every movement is starting to slow me down. Not to mention all the blood I've been losing, making me even more unsteady.

Thank _trolls_ that I push myself during my trainings, without the endurance and stamina I've built up over the years I probably would have been dead days ago. Any normal troll probably wouldn't even last a minute out here; except maybe that small yellow troll Poppy hangs out with. She'd most likely survive.

Racking my brain an idea struck my mind as we grew even closer the clearing, darting my eyes back up toward the creature I realized Poppy had been calling out to me; probably for a while now.

" _Hellooooooooo_ , BRANCH! EARTH TO BRANCH!" She bellowed out to me struggling, yelling and waving her arms in different attempts to gain my attention. "BRANCH!"

"POPPY!" I called up to her leaping onto another Bondi flower gaining a bit more speed. "I HAVE AN IDEA!" Jumping onto the next flower I glanced up to see where under the creature I was; barely under it's tail feathers. I need to get ahead if this is going to work. "POPPY I NEED YOU TO SLOW IT DOWN. SO I CAN GET AHEAD OF IT!"

I can't fully explain the plan due to how rapidly the clearing is coming up; and I'm just barely under the creature's stomach.

Luckily she seemed to understand what my plan is, but then her face twists in confusion.

"WAIT? HOW AM I GOING TO SLOW IT DOWN?! I'M KINDA STUCK HERE!"

"USE YOUR HAIR! COVER ITS EYES!"

I instructed refocusing my attention back to trying get ahead of the creature. This is my only shot. Bounding onto the next flower with weakening limbs that had been ready to give out long before. Above the creature made distressing sounds as Poppy covered its eyes, effectively slowing it down. Leaping toward every Bondi flower in my path I tried to gain as much speed and height as I can. The edge of the clearing is just a couple flowers away, quickly darting my eyes up to check only to find nothing above me! Glancing back and there it was! The creature was just behind me, in the air, still trying to regain its sight back.

' _Yes! My plan might work! But this is my only chance! I'm not going to waste it!'_ determination and anger for the creature powering me. Fueling me. Not to give up!

Jumping onto one of the last Bondi flower, before the clearing, I used all the speed to launch myself off the flower and above the clearing; high above the ground but still lower than the creature. Twisting mid air I shouted "POPPY!" and shot my hair toward her. Unwrapping her hair from the creature's eyes she launched her hair toward mine.

 _And_.

SUCCESS!

Our hair wrapped around each others tight and she quickly pulled me toward her.

Once I got close enough, my arms were immediately around her, holding her tightly but gentle, right above where the beak was clamped down on her. Shoving her face into my neck I could feel her arms wrap, clinging onto me, like her life depends on it, around my waist; choking back a cry of pain since her arms were right on both some reopened and new wounds. Poppy entangled her legs with mine so they weren't dangling freely in the air. Neither of us unraveling our hair from each other. Pressed as closely as we could be even with the beak in the way.

' _I need to make sure she's okay,_ '

Bringing my left hand up to cup her cheek, I lifted her head away from my neck so I could looked into her eyes to make sure she isn't lying. I'm trying to be as gentle with her as possible to make sure I wasn't accidentally hurting her in case she had injuries I couldn't see. I'm not going to let my anger hurt her. Looking into her eyes my heart ached as I saw hidden tears threatening to show.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine Branch," she reassured, I gave her a look that says ' _tell me where you're hurt_ '. Sighing she continued "The hook part is pierced into my side and I'm pretty sure I'm bleeding."

Moving the arm that was above the hook slightly, without letting her go, worry and anger surged through my body at the sight; she was right. The hooked part was in her side, I couldn't see the tip of the hook, but I could see that she was definitely bleeding.

Feeling Poppy nudge my hand, which still rested on her cheek, "Branch," snapping my eyes back to hers, her eyes filled with a desire to stay strong; but I could see how heavily this was affecting her. "Don't worry about me right now, you're in worse shape than I am," As if to prove her point one of her hands lightly brushed over one of the many open and bleeding wounds on my back, causing me yelp in pain. Poppy's eyes scanned over my face analyzing the cuts and bruises there, bringing a hand up quickly to wipe away some of the blood from one of the cuts. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Moving her arms from my waist to around my neck she pulled her body away slightly making a face full of mixed emotions as she stared at my chest, probably taking in how bad it was, how it was bleeding heavily from new wounds or from old ones at this point it doesn't matter. How parts of my chest were swollen and how obvious it was that I had trouble breathing normally, how practically useless the bandages on my chest were now.

' _How I am still alive at this point is beyond either of us. I don't think I'm going to make it back to the troll village, but I_ _ **will**_ _make sure Poppy makes it back alive._ '

"Some of your bandages are torn, and you have new deeper cuts over your old ones. We need to bandage you up first before we do anything." she whispered softly under her breath, as if her voice alone could soothe and heal all my injures. The way she's acting right now is making me feel uneasy. Silence fell between us as she continued to stare down at my chest, and I couldn't help but notice that the front of her dress was soaked with both her blood and my blood; and that her arms had my blood on them as well.

Before I could open my mouth we felt the head began to violently shake, making us instinctively tightened our grip on each other pressing our bodies back together. What felt like hours wrapped up in our own world, in reality was really only like a couple minutes at most, because the creature who I guess was in a daze from being temporarily blinded, finally realized that it had some extra weight on it. So in attempt to get rid of me, the creature began to violently shake its head in an attempt to throw me off.

"Branch, how _are_ we even going to get out of here?" The princess asked whimpering slightly, her face in my neck again.

This entire time in the back of my mind I've thinking up different ideas and escape plans, but only one of the them looks like it would actually work; and Poppy's not going to like it. Taking a deep breath, "If I could somehow restrain its wing movement than I could make it crash into the ground then it should be easy to pry the beak apart and free you. You should be relatively safe if I can twist it in the air so it lands on its back instead of face down." I explained letting the implications of the plan linger in the air. I held my breath, my ears twitching in anticipation, as I waited for her to understand what will happen to the creature because of this plan; who was still trying to throw me off. It doesn't help that due to blood loss I'm already feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous, or that I'm using what little strength I have left to hold onto Poppy.

Feeling the princess's body become stiff and tense against mine, despite the fact we're being thrown around, told me she understood what would happen to the creature. Snapping her head up, her wide eyes bore into mine. "B-b-but the crash from this height….." her breathing began to quicken and I could feel her heart beat rapidly in her chest, "Will kill it!" her eyes held mine silently asking if what I said is true. Tearing my eyes away letting out a sigh, I nodded.

"I know."

"Branch, you can't kill it! It's a living creature!" she pleaded her voice cracking trying not to let the tears fall.

"Poppy think about it!" I argued bringing my eyes back to meet hers, "You're trapped and I'm struggling just to stay alive at this point! Even if we somehow manage to escape this creature and make it back home leaving the creature alive, it will still be out here! Ready to attack and eat a troll who probably doesn't know how to defend themself like we do. Just imagine if a trolling somehow managed to end up here they'd be perfect for this creature eat, and then all the trolls who'd come here looking for them. It be a feast for the creature!" Pointing out a possible scenario. Any color that I possibly have gained over the years was immediately drained my body as I watched the princess's face contort into a face of horror at the thought, the tears she was holding back began to fall. Shoving her face back into my neck I could feel her body rack as she sobbed into my neck.

"But!" Another sob, "But! That would never happen!" she continued to sob into my neck as we were being violently shaken around.

I could handle being thrown around like a sack of potatoes, but how to handle the sobbing princess is a whole different story. If this plan is going to work I'm going to need her help, so in an awkward attempt to help calm her down I softly ran my hand up and down her back as best I could, nuzzling my face into her hair, holding her even closer than before if possible. It seemed to work as I felt her arms tighten around my neck, she stopped sobbing but I could feel her tears against my neck as she silently cried. Mentally kicking myself knowing I was the reason she was crying right now.

"But it _could_ happen, Poppy. Do you honestly want to take that chance? Knowing that this creature could have been stopped before it took anymore lives?" murmuring softly into her hair, "Poppy, think about the safety of the kingdom." I need her to understand but I can't stop loathing myself for putting her through this.

' _It's my fault she's acting like this! I shouldn't have been so stupid and let my guard down! Even for a second! Now I'm asking Poppy, who should have never risked her life for me in the first place, to do some of the most forbidden things a troll could do!_ ' I bitterly thought mentally growling at myself for being so stupid. Feeling the princess stir I brought me back to reality.

Lifting her head away from my neck, she laid her chin on my chest, I took the hand that was caressing her back and moved it to her face wiping away her tears with my thumb. "What do we have to do?" she mumbled almost inaudibly, her gaze not meeting mine.

Glancing down at the ground I was able to make out the clearing and the Bondi flowers. It looks like the creature was so focused on trying to get rid of me that it relatively stayed above the clearing.

"Alright I'm going to climb up and use my hair to wrap around its wings to restrain it. I'm going to need you to cover its eyes, if it can't see then it can't try and attack me." shaking my head, "I don't think I could handle another attack,"

' _The crash will already be too much for my weakened state,_ ' I concluded. Turning back to look at the pink princess, she stared back at me, like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it. Before I could open my mouth to ask her what's wrong she cut me off.

"Do you trust me?"

Giving her a confused look, "I kinda have to?"

Suddenly without warning she removed both her arms from my neck making me fall a bit; almost losing my grip on her. "Poppy!" I shouted tightening my arms, "What were you thinking!?" Pulling a pair of scissors out of her hair, she grabbed her dress and then proceeded to start cutting it off, " _Poppy?!_ What are you doing?" I exclaimed my face heating up, looking away as she continued to cut off her dress.

"I need to bandage you up, you bleeding out won't do either of us any good." Poppy hissed in pain when one of scissor blades accidentally cuts her skin, but that didn't stop her. I think she's just cutting out the middle of her dress, right under her upper chest to where the beak was clamped down on her. I knew she was done when I felt her shift and then the only thing that took over my mind was the feeling of how warm her skin was against mine.

She wrapped her dress around me as much as she could, considering how much smaller she is than me, the dress covered most of the torn bandages on my back, but fell just short of the ones on my chest. "Hold it down, so it doesn't move," she commanded holding both ends of the makeshift bandage in her hands. Using our combined hair I wrapped our hairs around our waists to keep us together as I removed my arms from around her waist to grab both ends of the fabric from her hands. Swiftly she grabbed some ribbon from her hair and quickly began to wrap it around my chest as best she could, the ribbon was holding the bandage down and covering the area on my chest that the fabric couldn't reach. As she was finishing up I removed our hairs and replaced my arms back around her waist to keep us together, looking back at the creature trying to find the best way to get onto it. Less than a minute later I felt her hands stop moving, she seemed to be just staring at my chest again, not tearing her eyes away she mumbled,

"Done."

Peering down I noticed she had tied the ribbon into a bow similar to hers, right in the middle of my chest, she let out a small snort at the sight, a ghost of a smile crossed her face. Any other time I'd probably demand she take the bow out and tie it normally, but I think she needs it more than I want it out. So for her, I'll keep it like this, this one time.

"Alright," I nodded, "Let's do this."

As I started to move away Poppy pulled me back toward her into a tight hug, "For good luck," she mumbled into my ear. Wheezing as she practically squeezed out what little life of me I have left, I nodded back to her, acknowledging the same to her. The princess untangled her legs from mine, making them drop and dangle in mid air, our entangled hair and arms around each other were the only thing left to keeping me from falling to certain death. Grabbing the only thing available in my reach, the creature's nostril hole, and with Poppy's help, I hoisted myself on top of the creature's beak. Freezing in my tracks as the creature's yellow-red eyes connected with mine, letting out a low trill. Luckily before it could do anything the trill turned into a shriek as our entangled hairs wrapped around it's eyes, looking back at Poppy she gave me two thumbs up smiling slightly while saying "I've got your back, Branch!" nodding quickly, I scrambled hastily down it's beak toward and onto the creature's crown before I could've been hurled off. Which was a good thing since once its eyes were covered again it began to even more frantically whip around in a desperate attempt to get rid of me. Clutching it's crown tightly I climbed down to its nape, pausing to look at the creature's body as I unwrapped my hair from the creature's eyes, leaving Poppy's to keep them covered, I found a major problem with my plan.

' _Shit! How am I supposed to restrain its wings? My hair isn't long enough to go around the creature's entire body._ ' growling lowly as I gripped the creature's nape tightly. Turning to look at it's wings an idea popped into my mind, letting go of it's nape I crawled down it's mantle and swiftly clambered my way onto and down it's wing.

"Branch! What are you doing!?" I heard the princess holler at me.

"I have an idea!" Continuing to crawl toward the end of its wings, it took everything I had to hold on and not be blown off by the wind, or be thrown off-

But suddenly with a jerk of it's wing my grip slipped and I was thrown off the wing into the air, above the creature, "AHHHHHHH!"

" _BRANCH!_ " Poppy's voice cracked as she called out to me, horrified.

Plummeting back down toward earth, I was able to grab one of the creature's end feathers on it's wing, clutching it for dear life as gravity tried to pull me back down. "I'm okay, Poppy!" I shouted to her, crawling back fully onto the wing, "I'll be okay! Just keep it's eyes covered!" I panted trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest. Swiftly crawling to the end of the wing, I held on as tightly as troll possible, as the creature's wings flapped frantically, and waited till the wings got close to each other. Finally when they were close enough I launched my hair wrapping it around the other wing, avoiding the claws of the wings, bringing it closer to the wing I was on. I swiftly wrapped my hair around both wings as quickly as I could until the creature's wings were wrapped tightly unable to move.

Immediately without its wings moving to keep it airborne the creature began to plummet toward the ground from high in the sky, it took all my strength to hold on to the creature and keep it's wings from breaking free. Using the wings, I was able to turn the creature in mid air making it so that it's back would hit the ground first, trying to keep it that way as the creature wildly flailed around.

The creature hit the ground with a heavy _**THUD**_ , the force from hitting the ground was so powerful that it that it actually threw me off the creature. I screamed loudly in pain as my damaged body forcefully hit the ground tumbling a few feet away. I couldn't stop a few tears from falling as I was gasping trying to breathe properly, pausing only to cough up some blood. Horrified I used my arm to wipe away the blood and pushed myself up, still struggling to breathe. Blood was also dripping from some parts of my body, but I couldn't care less at the moment, I need to focus on breathing properly.

"Branch!" I heard the pink princess call out to me, turning to look at her, I noticed she used the opportunity of the creature's beak being opened all the way from the crash to her advantage as she remove herself from the hook part, whimpering in pain when it left her body, and quickly scurried her way over to me. Kneeling down next to me she carefully pulled my upper half into her lap, placing her hands on both my cheeks Poppy lifted my head forcing me to look at her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," turning my head away from her, I coughed again, luckily no blood this time, "I'll be fine," I lied, placing a hand over her wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Looking back up into her eyes I could tell she didn't believe me, to distract her I reached into her hair grabbed the last of her ribbon, and hastily tied it around her wound. Fortunately I began to even out my breathing, as best I could, basically I'm not constantly gasping for air with every breath; I'm still having a lot of difficulty breathing normally though.

"Let's go home-"

 _ **CAW!**_

Both of us froze at the sound, we watched in terror as the creature, with blood dripping down the side of it's head, rose itself off the ground. Whipping itself toward us its beady yellow-red eyes narrowed at us, ruffling up its feathers, the pattern rapidly moving down its body in anger. The creature then belted out the same ear-bleeding screech from before, then launched itself at us.

' _The crash should've killed it! I guess it wasn't going down without a fight. There's nothing we can do to stop it_ ,'

Sitting up I leaned over Poppy, facing the creature, putting myself between her and it as a last minute way to protect her; even though I knew it wouldn't work.

' _I'm sorry I put you through all this, Poppy, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you_.'

Unable to move out of the way in time, there was nothing we could do but sit and watch in horror as the creature came barreling toward us! Wings stretched wide claws ready to tear our entire bodies to shred! It's beak open wide screeching the entire time! And right as I'm watching my entire life go by in front of my eyes-

 _ **CHOMP!**_

The entire creature was eaten whole, right before our eyes.

Staring in stunned silence we both looked down toward the thing that just ate the creature whole.

Leaving in its place was a small cocoa colored tamrainan; groundhog like creatures that have dog like personalities. Their playful act is mostly just a ruse these creatures are actually quite dangerous. Although this one must still be young as it was just a bit smaller than us and adults are twice as tall when fully grown. All I could do at the moment was stare at the tamrainan with a mix of shock, confusion and a bit of disgust.

"What the fuc-" I started to say but Poppy's squealing cut me off as she exclaimed, while running toward the tamrainan.

"Butterball! You saved us!"

"Poppy stay away from that thing! It'll eat us too!" I called out to her. But she just ignored me and scooped up the tamrainan into her arms nuzzling her face into its fur, its short tail wagging all the while. Poppy was laughing and smiling like the fact that we were almost eaten less than 30 seconds ago never happened, and it was just a normal day; me on the other hand, I was still trying to wrap my head around the situation. If this is Poppy's way of dealing with the aftermath of tough situations I don't think I'll ever understand her.

"No she wont, Branch," she laughed looking back at me, "This is Butterball! She's one of the forest creatures I took care of when that fire happened a couple years ago, she was a lot smaller back then."

While Poppy was catching up with the tamrainan, I grabbed a nearby flower petal and started to wipe up some of the blood that was dripping down my body; trying to ignore the throbbing pain with every movement. It didn't do much, but it helped a bit. Throwing the bloody flower petal away, Poppy's giggling and squealing brought my attention back to her, watching as the tamrainan was licking Poppy's face like an overexcited puppy.

"Hehehe down Butterball! Down! Stop licking me!" she squealed placing 'Butterball' back down on the ground.

It ran around excitedly but suddenly the tamrainan stopped, turned away and started to gag, it then proceeded to hack up the creature's entire skeleton, staring at it for a minute before looking back at us with a big dopey ass grin it's tongue flopped out of its mouth as it panted. Looking over at Poppy I was slightly pleased she had the same disgusted look as me, "Now I see _why_ that creature was so afraid of the forest," I mumbled as she and the tamrainan started walking over to me.

Coughing into my fist, my stomach dropped when I saw that I had coughed up some more blood. Quickly wiping it on the ground, I could feel myself become weaker as the pain was catching up with me tenfold.

"Branch!"

"I'm right here Poppy, you don't need to yell," Wincing as she practically yelled in my ear, beaming as she smiled brightly.

"With Butterball's help we can make it back to the troll village! And you can get help! Isn't that great?" she beamed, always looking for the 'cupcakes and rainbows' of the situation. Reaching down she grabbed my hand and pulled me up onto my semi-good foot.

Placing her left hand down on the tamrainan, Poppy leaned against it for support, her right arm was wrapped around my waist, my left arm around her's, relying on her for support. I'm barely able to stay conscious, and even though my vision is starting to black out, I could still see the huge smile that went from ear to ear on the princess's face. The smile was as bright as ever, a good indicator she was starting to return back to her old self. My gut lurched when I realized that I'm probably not going to make back alive, but I can't tell her that she's just starting to return to normal and if I do she'll be crushed.

' _ **I don't know why she would be, considering this is all your fault! You deserve to die.**_ ' the voice stated.

' _I need to hold out till we get close enough to the village, to bring her back to the other trolls,_ ' I thought ignoring the voice. Swaying a bit as the pain took hold of my entire body weighing it down like I was carrying ten tons of weight, I felt cold down to my bones and I could feel my lungs start to give out more as my heart ache with every beat. Squeezing my hip to gain my attention, I looked back at Poppy.

Poppy's voice was enough to distract me as she looked at me, still smiling brightly as she asked, "You ready to go home?"

Forcing a small grin to hide the pain I nodded, "Let's go," dropping the small grin when she looked away. Poppy beamed and looked toward the tamrainan before shouting,

" **Onward Butterball! Take us home!"**


End file.
